Hotel Transylvania Oneshots
by MWolfL
Summary: Just a series of short stories connected to my upcoming main stories.
1. Dennis's Hero

It was the following evening after Dennis's birthday, and Dennis, Mavis, Dracula, and Vlad were already flying around the lobby as bats laughing. At least until Dennis noticed something.

"Hey, where did dad go?" He looked around concerned, since Johnny had been watching them fly earlier.

"That's weird, normally he loves watching us fly around." Mavis said.

"Maybe he decided to take care of a hotel problem on his own so we wouldn't have to stop having fun." Dracula suggested.

"He's selfless like that huh?" Vlad said.

"Oh yeah, he always puts us before himself." Mavis smiled.

Dennis however sensed that something was bothering his dad, and flew off to find him.

"Dennis?" Mavis followed him.

She caught up with him easily, because Dennis had suddenly stopped. When Mavis looked where Dennis was staring she understood why:

Johnny was leaning front-first against the edge of the courtyard, as if he was watching something in the waters below.

Dennis turned back to human form and hurried over to him. Mavis, Dracula, and Vlad stayed back, unsure of what to do.

"Dad? You okay?" Dennis asked Johnny.

"Hm? Oh hey Dennis." Johnny smiled sadly. "Yeah I'm fine..."

"Dad, you can't fool me." Dennis looked at him pointedly. "I know something's bothering you."

"Too smart for my own good huh?" Johnny chuckled affectionately before becoming solemn. "Well, I can't lie to you: I've been feeling left out for a long time now. First Mavis kept canceling Date Night to keeping hanging out with you. Not that I blame her, but I miss having Date Night. Then..." Johnny hung his head. "Then you got your vampire powers. And I can't join in on everything you and Mavis can do."

Mavis teared up and rushed over to hug Johnny.

"Mavis?" Johnny said with surprise, feeling a little bad since he never wanted to upset her.

"I'm so sorry Johnny, I was so caught up in making sure Dennis would always be safe and healthy that I forgot that you're as important to me as he is." Mavis almost sobbed.

"Hey it's okay." Johnny returned the hug. "Keeping Dennis safe and healthy is important after all."

"Still..." Mavis sobbed, then calmed down a little. "To be honest I've been missing Date Night too. How about I make up for neglecting you by letting you and Dennis hang out by yourselves tonight, and then we can have Date Night around early-morning while dad puts Dennis to bed for us."

"That sounds awesome." Johnny smiled.

"It sure does, in fact I've been wanting to hang out with dad more for a long time." Dennis grinned. "He's my hero. Well, non-comic-book hero." He chuckled.

"Really?" Johnny beamed, happily surprised.

"Yeah, after all it's thanks to you that humans and monsters can hang out together now." Dennis smiled. "And you were able to make mom and Poppa Drac's lives better just by being yourself. I hope I'll be as successful as you at improving the world one day."

"Well you have your mom and vampa's awesomeness, so I'm sure you will."

So Mavis and Dracula went back to keeping an eye on things at the hotel, while Johnny and Dennis went up to the family's floor to play. They decided to play hide-and-seek first, with Dennis deciding not to hide in bat form since his dad couldn't. During Dennis's second turn at hiding, Johnny started counting...but then he froze. For some reason a cold grip of fear clutched at his chest. He didn't know why or how, but he knew who:

"Dennis?" He called out worriedly. "Are you okay?"

No answer. Johnny became even more afraid, and started running. He didn't actually know where Dennis was, but something told him to look in a particular direction.

At the same time, Mavis was chatting with a suit of armor about a problem in the hotel when she fell silent and formed a horrified expression.

"Mavy? What's wrong?" Dracula asked concernedly.

"DENNIS!" Mavis cried, instantly turning into a bat and flying out the window.

Horrified, Dracula and Vlad turned into bats as well and followed her. Frank, Griffin, Murray, Winnie, and Johnny's human family knew that Johnny and Dennis were at the Dracula family floor so they headed for the elevators to go there (Wayne wasn't there, he and Wanda were too busy with their other pups).

Johnny and Mavis found Dennis at the same time...he was in bat-form in Quasimodo's grip struggling to break free!

"Cease your struggling half-human!" Quasimodo glared. "An abomin-"

"**Let. Him. Go.**" A furious voice growled.

Mavis - as well as Vlad and Dracula, who had just arrived - was stunned. That was Johnny! He was standing there glaring at Quasimodo like he was ready to kill him! Quasimodo was shocked too: was this the same human who was terrified by Esmeralda's deadpan squeak?

"I said let him go!" Johnny growled.

"I don't think so human, humans and monsters should not interbreed!" Quasimodo frowned back defiantly.

Instead of disagreeing, Johnny tackled Quasimodo and grabbed the arm that was holding Dennis. Quasimodo tried to break free, but Johnny's determination to save his son was too strong for him. Johnny had one hand on Quasimodo's throat choking him, and was tightening his grip on the arm that was holding Dennis. Finally Quasimodo, not able to fend Johnny off with one hand, let go of Dennis. Johnny instantly caught Dennis and got up to start to run away, but he didn't need to. The moment Johnny was off Quasimodo Mavis used her powers to suspend Quasimodo in tortured animation.

"Don't you ever hurt my son again!" She roared.

She then flung him into the wall, knocking him out.

"I thought you froze him after he tried to eat Johnny." She then said to Dracula.

"I unfroze him after locking him up in one of the dungeons." Dracula explained. "He couldn't eat while frozen and I didn't want him to starve to death."

"Oh."

The others caught up, and were shocked to see Quasimodo there.

"Aw man, he must've broken out." Frank realized.

"Yes, so this time I'll keep a straightjacket on him and post a guard at his cell." Dracula nodded.

"So...what's the story behind him?" Mike asked.

"Quasimodo the human-eater, who used to be the hotel's chef." Griffin explained. "He wouldn't accept Johnny being Mavis's zing so Drac locked him up."

"You hired a cannibal as a chef?" Linda asked confusedly.

"Wha- Oh, no he's not **that** Quasimodo, that Quasimodo died of old age centuries ago." Dracula explained. "This one is a distant descendant, and a mix of various monsters. Frankly, I think that mix made him unbalanced..."

A.N. The monsters in this franchise are obviously different from their book counterparts (save a few details), so I figured that maybe the books were fictional versions of their stories. However I made the original Quasimodo an ancestor rather than the character we see in the first movie, since this Quasimodo is too insane to have been the famous bell-ringer

"Son? Are you okay?"

That was Johnny, who had calmed down after Quasimodo was knocked out and was now on his knees with now-human-Dennis lying in his arms. Mavis was kneeling by them too, worried about Dennis.

"Yeah, just a little out of breath." Dennis wheezed, and then turned back to human-form before smiling. "You saved me dad, you're now a superhero too."

"Of course I saved you, you mean the world to me." Johnny smiled back. "No one is allowed to hurt you while I'm around."

Dennis reached up to hug Johnny, and Mavis gave Johnny a big kiss.

"You're not just Dennis's hero." She smiled lovingly at Johnny.

Johnny just gazed lovingly back at her.

Dracula didn't want to interrupt this moment, so he grabbed Quasimodo and carried him away from the scene. Quasimodo woke up shortly after this, so Dracula stopped to lift him up.

"I've had enough of you." Dracula glared at him. "I don't like killing others, but try to harm my family or even another human again and I **will** kill you."

Quasimodo gulped, knowing very well that Dracula was capable of killing him. He reluctantly nodded. Some suits of armor then showed up.

"Take him back to the dungeon, and keep a guard there. I'll be down later to put a straightjacket on him." Dracula ordered.

"Aye-aye sir." One of the suits of armor saluted.

They took Quasimodo after Dracula used a nearby curtain pull to tie him up - just to be on the safe side - and Dracula went to see Dennis. Johnny and Mavis had ended their gaze and were now group-hugging Dennis; Winnie had joined in too.

"I'm glad you're okay Dennisovich, Quasimodo's tougher than he looks." Dracula kneeled down.

Mavis and Johnny let go, and so did Winnie after realizing why. Dennis went over to hug Dracula, who instantly returned the hug.

"No kidding, he appeared out of nowhere and asked who I was. I didn't know of his hatred for humans so I told him who my parents were, and he flipped out and tried to strangle me! I turned into a bat to fly out of his reach but he leapt up and grabbed me before I could react." Dennis said. "And then dad suddenly showed up- Wait a minute, we were playing hide-and-seek how did you find me so quickly?" Dennis realized, turning to Johnny.

"Don't really know, I just know that while I was counting I suddenly felt terrified and somehow knew that you were in danger. And then I ran to you without knowing where you actually were." Johnny shrugged.

"I felt the same thing when I was downstairs." Mavis added. "I'm sure it was parental instinct, since nothing else can explain it."

"It was. Sometimes a parents' love for their child is so strong that they can instantly sense when their child is in danger, even when their child isn't within sight." Dracula smiled.

"That sounds like the best superpower ever." Dennis grinned.

"It sure is." Johnny chuckled in agreement, affectionately ruffling Dennis's head.

"It definitely was a superpower in your case, the way you saved Dennisovich was awesome." Dracula smiled to Johnny. "Even the gargoyles and my knights have trouble handling him, but you were able to pin him down."

"Huh...didn't even think about that. I just knew I couldn't let him continue hurting Dennis." Johnny shrugged humbly.

"Still, you are definitely the son Martha and I never had."

"Aw gee..." Johnny chuckled embarrassedly, since that was high praise coming from Dracula.

Mike and Linda just smiled at the scene. Even though they had accepted Johnny's marriage to Mavis and even liked Mavis they still had some reservations about Johnny marrying into a family of monsters and living with them. Not that they didn't trust the monsters, but centuries of prejudism and wild stories can sometimes make you wary even when there's no reason to be.

But seeing Mavis's obvious love for Johnny and Dracula's love for his whole family made them feel a lot better. They decided to stop worrying about Johnny and Dennis and let them live their lives here in Transylvania, rather than trying to visit as often as possible to keep an eye on them. They would still visit of course, but truthfully it was easier for Mavis, Johnny, and Dennis to visit them than it was for them to do the visiting (especially expense-wise).

So later that day, Johnny's human family decided to head home. But before they left they talked with Johnny about future visits. They all decided that Thanksgiving would definitely be hosted by Mike and Linda whenever Dennis's teachers would let him take time off school, otherwise they would just celebrate Thanksgiving separately.

Mother's Day, Father's Day, Halloween, and birthdays would just be sending cards and presents in the mail (it was a bit much to make someone travel across the ocean just for one day). Johnny's human family will now mostly visit for the Christmas holidays (mostly because it'd be insane to invite ALL the monsters to their place for the holidays), with a few exceptions.


	2. Cruise to a New Life

It was just after Abraham Van Helsing reformed. Due to the party floor having been destroyed everyone decided to head back to the casino, with the kraken - who's name turned out to be Joe - helping them by providing one of his tentacles as a bridge. Not that anyone wanted to go back to gambling, but going through the casino was the easiest way back to the ship.

"So, what now?" Griffin asked once they reached the deck. "Do we just head home, or stay here on the ship for a while?"

"Well I think I should first talk to Ericka and Mr. Van Helsing about what they want to do." Dracula said.

"In my case I've stayed on this ship almost my whole life, so I could really use a change of scenery." Ericka said.

"Fine with me. Now that I won't be hunting monsters anymore I should figure out a new place to stay anyway." Abraham shrugged. "Which reminds me...there's a lot of old family items I should sort through. Some of them probably wouldn't be appropriate in a new home."

"Like your old monster hunting equipment?" Ericka teased.

"Yeah, exactly." Abraham winced. "So everything I'm not going to keep I'll either throw away or give away. After you go through them as well of course."

"You can throw out the weapons for all I care. Otherwise I would like to go through everything else."

"Right. We should get started, the sooner we get it over with the better."

"Do you mind if my family and I help?" Dracula offered. "It would get the chore done even faster."

"Yeah, and since Miss Ericka is Papa Drac's zing that makes her, and you, family as well." Dennis smiled.

Abraham winced a bit, but shrugged.

"Well, like I said the sooner it's over the better. So I guess there's no problem with you helping."

"Okay, the rest of you just relax, maybe even get ready for bed. It has been a long night after all." Dracula said to the other monsters.

The other monsters had no complaints. Truthfully they were pretty tired.

Abraham and Ericka led the vampire family - even Vlad, who didn't want to look selfish and was curious about the Van Helsing items - down to their secret lair. For once Winnie didn't join Dennis, instead Dennis asked her to keep Tinkles company. He was concerned that Tinkles might take up too much space down in the lair, which would make going through the Van Helsings' things difficult.

"Boy, Drac's not the only one who's had giant family portraits done." Johnny remarked upon seeing the portraits of the other Van Helsings.

"Oh giant portraits were common amongst wealthy families even back during the 1800s." Abraham shrugged.

"That explains why you can afford to own this amazing ship." Mavis realized.

"Yes...and thank you. I admit I've always been proud of this ship." Abraham smiled. "Um...before we get started...so you two are going to be dating now?" He said to Dracula and Ericka.

"Yes, we are." Ericka said determinedly. "Look, I know you've hated monsters your whole life but-"

"No no, it's okay. I mean I admit I do feel awkward about you dating Dracula, especially since I considered him my greatest enemy nearly my whole life, but I'll accept it. Mostly because Dracula saved my life despite my having hunted monsters in the past, and especially despite having no reason to do so. Well maybe one reason..." Abraham gave Ericka a meaningful look. "So I owe him anyway."

"Mostly?" Mavis said.

"Yeah, the other reason is because...well, while I may not have always shown it I do care a lot about my great-granddaughter. Ericka's the only family I have now." Abraham said sadly.

"I know how you feel...I don't even know what my parents were like." Ericka looked sad as well.

Mavis gave her a sympathetic glance.

"I'm afraid I can't help you with that, while I wasn't a neglectful father to my son I admit my obsession with hunting monsters caused me to become distant from my grandson. All I know is that he and your mother died in a car crash while they were taking you on a trip." Abraham sighed. "It was sheer luck that you survived the crash."

Ericka looked even sadder, prompting Dracula to comfortingly put an arm around her. This actually made Abraham feel better about Dracula dating Ericka, since he could tell that Dracula really did love her.

"Say, you think some of their personal items could be amongst this stuff?" Dennis suddenly said.

There was a bit of a silence.

"Huh...you know that may actually be possible. After they died I inherited their furniture and other things as well as Ericka, but I never really payed attention to what I received." Abraham considered this. "Never bothered to get rid of any of it either...I meant to go through them and get rid of what I didn't need, but focusing on killing monsters and raising Ericka took up most of my time."

"Well, then let's get looking." Johnny smiled.

They split up a bit, Abraham deciding to get out all his weapons in preparation to throw them out. After dismantling them of course, so that no one else could use them as weapons. The others separated the items into certain piles to make it easier to go through them later. One pile of furniture, one pile of clothes, etc.

"Geez, building these things was easier." Abraham grumbled.

"Here, let me." Dracula came over.

He used his powers to make the rest of the weapons break into pieces and fall into a pile.

"Oh. Duh, should've thought of that. Thank you." Abraham facepalmed upon remembering all the times Dracula used his powers to escape him.

"No problem...it was fun." Dracula smirked.

Abraham rolled his eyes, but couldn't help being a little amused.

"Hey, what's with these two suitcases?" Vlad said.

Confused, everyone else went to him and looked at the suitcases. There weren't any tags or stickers, so they had no idea why they were here. After all Ericka did say that she spent nearly all her life on the ship...

"There's only one way to find out." Abraham opened one to find dresses. "Okay..."

"Maybe that will explain what these are for." Ericka noticed an envelope sticking out of a pocket in the suitcase's lid.

She took the envelope, but widened her eyes upon reading the writing on it.

"What's wrong?" Mavis asked.

Ericka teared up a bit.

"It says 'For Ericka, to be opened on her 18th birthday'." She said.

Everyone was stunned. Mavis teared up too, recognizing the significance of the envelope.

"These must've belonged to Ericka's parents." Abraham said quietly, looking at the suitcases almost nostalgically. "Well...you're over eighteen so..."

"Right..." Ericka still hesitated.

Mavis put a hand on her shoulder.

"I know how you feel, my mom made me a present for my hundred and eighteenth birthday before she died." She said gently. "I also was a bit nervous to open it, but I knew it had to be important so I did. It was a good thing too, it turned out to be a story about how she and dad zinged. The story was basically her wish that I would someday find my zing as well, and I did. So whatever your parents got for you also has to be important, maybe even their wish for your future."

Ericka gave her a grateful smile, and opened the envelope. Inside was a birthday card and a letter. Ericka opened the card first, which just contained a simple birthday greeting apart from adding that she's now free to make her own choices...except when it comes to drinking. That part made everyone chuckle.

So she opened the letter next:

Dear Ericka,

Since you are now old enough to make your own choices, we've decided to tell you our family's secret. You and I are actually descended from monster hunters. I too was raised to hunt monsters, but unlike my father and the rest of our family I had been introduced to movies and books that portrayed monsters as people rather than evil creatures. I was worried that the real monsters would turn out to be nice as well, which would make our family nothing more than murderers.

Unfortunately my dad wouldn't listen, and after I married your mother and had you he wanted you to be raised as a monster hunter as well. This made your mother and I decide to run away with you, so that you wouldn't be forced into the mindset that monsters are evil.

However, you are now free to decide whether you want to become a monster hunter or not. It's your choice, and your mother and I will always love you no matter what you choose. We just want you to be happy.

Love,

Father and Mother

Ericka actually smiled after reading the letter, comforted by this tangible proof that her parents loved her. Not that she ever doubted the fact, but sometimes when you don't remember someone your mind wanders when thinking about them. The vampire family smiled as well. Abraham on the other hand started crying.

"I can't believe I dishonored my grandson's wish to stop hunting monsters." He sobbed.

"Well, you didn't know he wanted the family to stop hunting monsters so technically you didn't dishonor him." Johnny said. "I'm sure he isn't mad at you or anything. In fact since you've now decided to stop hunting monsters I bet he's real proud of you."

Abraham sniffled, but smiled gratefully at Johnny. Then he looked surprised

"Wait- Are you human?" He asked.

"You mean you didn't notice earlier?" Dracula chuckled.

"Well I was focusing so much on killing all the monsters that no I didn't." Abraham said defensively. "Besides, with the mindset I had at the time can you blame me for not expecting a human to join in on a monster cruise?"

Everyone had to admit he had a point.

"Let me officially introduce you two then: Mr. Van Helsing, this is my husband and zing Johnny Loughran Dracula." Mavis smiled.

"Pleasure to meet you...gotta admit, that was impressive the way you used your music to defeat my music." Abraham said.

"Well I couldn't let my family or friends get killed." Johnny smiled, shaking Abraham's hand.

"So, what should be done with everything else in the suitcases?" Vlad asked.

Dracula gave him an irritated look, but decided to say nothing. Sometimes it was impossible to teach Vlad how to be more tactful.

"Well I'll go through my mom's clothes, maybe some of them will be my style and fit me." Ericka said. "Dad's clothes...well, great-grandpa obviously has no use for them." She chuckled.

"Ha ha." Abraham snarked.

"I guess I'll just give them to charity." She decided before smiling: "You know, I've often wondered how much I had in common with my parents. It looks like I may have had more in common with them than I ever thought."

"I'll agree to that." Abraham smiled.

So they finished going through everything else. Ericka ended up liking all of her mom's clothing, and so decided to take the whole suitcase to her cabin to try them on. The throw away pile was shrunken down so that it all could simply be tossed in a trash can, while the keep and give away piles were stored in opposite sides of the room.

"Um, Ericka..." Dracula blushed, following her to her cabin. "We didn't really have a real first date so...I was wondering..."

"Of course. In fact I was thinking about us having an official first date myself." Ericka smiled. "How about tomorrow night?"

"Sounds perfect." Dracula smiled back.

Ericka then drew closer to him, causing his heart to start pounding.

"You know, even though it technically wasn't a real first date we still were going to have a first kiss before Mavis showed up." She smiled flirtingly. "Maybe we could have it now?"

"Um..." Dracula gulped, feeling warmer than normal. "I mean..." He kept stopping himself, not wanting to start babbling again

"If you're feeling to nervous to do it now that's okay, we can do it after our date tomorrow instead." Ericka backed away a little, not wanting to make Dracula uncomfortable.

"No, it's not that." Dracula took a deep breath. "It's just that...well, I guess I'm still getting used to being in love again. I am enjoying it, and I'm more than happy about it, but... Well, I guess it's sort of like when you're forced to stop doing something you love for years, and then you finally get a chance to do it again. Your body simply needs time to catch up with your joy."

"I think I understand...I've got a feeling I'm not going to have an easy time being on land again." Ericka chuckled.

"So...you're coming back to the hotel with us?" Dracula hoped that's what she meant.

"Oh definitely, I'm tired of being on this ship. I mean I suppose I could captain the Legacy every summer or something, but otherwise I'd like to spend the rest of my life on land." Ericka nodded.

"You don't know how much of a relief that is to me." Dracula chuckled. "I never wanted to leave the hotel and especially never leave my family. Plus, to be honest, I'm not fond of boats. I'll tolerate them for my friends and family's sake, but otherwise..."

"Guess we both will be happy to leave the Legacy then." Ericka chuckled back.

"Very much so. But I'm still going to ask that we take the Legacy all the way to Romania. I think that everyone else will be grateful for the extra-long cruise after what happened, plus it'll also be safer."

"Safer?"

"We took Gremlin Airlines to the Bermuda Triangle. And trust me, the stories didn't exaggerate those guys." Dracula winced. "And when we were heading back to the ship I overheard Johnny begging Mavis to not have us use Gremlin Airlines to get back home. Didn't hear her response, but I'm sure she agreed."

"Ah, in that case no problem. It would be better for us to dock the Legacy in Romania instead of the Bermuda Triangle anyway, especially since it's not exactly the safest spot for ships."

"No kidding. I'm not sure I want to know how it does that to planes and ships." Dracula chuckled.

"Me either." Ericka chuckled back.

She then surprised him with a kiss. Dracula was really caught off-guard, but returned the kiss. They both were overwhelmed by the amount of love they felt.


	3. A Zing's Blessing

It was a few days after Dracula had proposed to Ericka. Everyone was preparing for the wedding, with Mavis in charge of course. Frank was selected as best man, due to being Dracula's oldest friend. Since Ericka had no living female relatives, she made Mavis maid of honor.

One night, Ericka went looking for Dracula and found him in his bedroom staring at the portrait of him and Martha.

"Is everything okay hon?" Ericka went inside concernedly.

"Yeah...sorta." Dracula admitted. "I really do love you and want to marry you, but I'm afraid that if I do I'll be betraying Martha."

"Ah." Ericka paused to think. "To be honest, I have no idea how Martha feels about us getting married. After all I never knew her. But your friends knew her right? Maybe they'll know what to do."

"You're right, they did know her. And asking their advice is better than spending the rest of our lives worrying about this." Dracula smiled. "Let's go talk to them now."

They went downstairs. Luckily most of the monsters were off doing their own things, and Dracula's oldest friends were playing Uno with Mavis, Dennis, Winnie, and Johnny.

"Oh hey Drac...what's wrong?" Frank asked, noticing Dracula and Ericka's expressions.

Dracula admitted the problem.

"Ericka thought we could talk to you guys about it, since you knew Martha too." He finished.

"Well I say if marrying someone else means you're betraying Martha, then you wouldn't have zinged at all." Frank said.

"Yeah, she'd want you to be happy." Murray added. "She certainly wouldn't want you to spend the rest of your life alone. Romance-wise I mean."

"I...suppose you both have good points but..." Dracula hesitated.

"Maybe you could just go back to Castle Lubov." Johnny suggested.

"WHAT?" Frank, Murray, Wayne, and Griffin said with shock.

"Johnny are you nuts, Dracula hasn't been there since...you know..." Wayne said awkwardly.

"I know." Johnny shrugged. "When I first came here Dracula told me what happened to Martha to explain why he was so protective of Mavis. But I was at that castle too, many years ago. And when I was there I felt something, like there was someone still there. I thought it was both the count and his wife's ghosts and their love, since there was this legend about both of them having died in a fire, but after hearing the real story from Drac I realized that it was just Martha haunting the place."

"That's right...I remember you talking about that." Dracula said as everyone else looked stunned. "Well, even if the castle turns out to be completely empty it's still worth a try. We all may as well go, if Martha turns out to be there I'd like her to officially meet Johnny and Dennis."

"What am I, guano?" Vlad frowned.

"Oh yeah, you too. Sorry dad." Dracula said sincerely. "I'm just still getting used to being on good terms with you."

"Well, since we've been separated for centuries I guess I can't blame you for that." Vlad muttered.

"Would you like us to come along? You know, for emotional support?" Frank asked.

"Sure. I think we can easily fly you all over there...it won't be that long of a flight anyway." Dracula agreed. "I'll carry Ericka and Frank, Mavis can carry Johnny and Murray, Dennis can carry Wayne, with Winnie in his arms, and Griffin. Unless you don't mind carrying someone dad."

"I think I can handle hairy here." Vlad said.

"Watch it fangless." Wayne glared.

Vlad glared back, but didn't retort. Secretly even he knew Wayne had made a good comeback.

So they all went outside, and Dracula, Mavis, Dennis, and Vlad switched to bat form and picked up their assigned passengers. Dracula led the way, since he was the only 'bat' who knew where the castle was located.

When they got there, they were actually surprised to see the castle restored. The only proof that there had been a fire was the burnt curtains in the windows.

"Oh yeah, forgot to mention this before: the castle had been turned into a historical landmark, so the town had it restored to make it safer for guided tours." Johnny said.

"Ohhh..." Everyone else said.

Dracula truthfully was a bit touched by this. The restoration almost felt like an apology from the town for what happened, even though the current inhabitants probably still didn't know the real story.

"Well, come on." Johnny cheerfully led the way into the castle.

Everyone else followed less cheerfully. They knew that since Johnny had been here before there was nothing to fear, but they couldn't help feeling a bit hesitant. It was probably just their knowledge of Martha's death though.

They went inside, and saw that the castle still had it's original furnishings. The only inside changes were the additions of cushioned chairs, probably for guests who had to wait for the next tour.

"Huh...that's weird. The castle feels totally empty now." Johnny turned to them with a frown.

Instead of replying, the others widened their eyes as they saw a light shine down behind Johnny.

"Oh wait, there we go. There's someone or something present now." Johnny said before finally noticing everyone else staring. "What?"

The others were too stunned to speak, so Johnny turned around to answer his question...and saw a ghostly woman floating there.

"YIKE!" Johnny jumped back automatically.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you." The woman giggled.

The woman of course was...

"M-Martha?" Dracula choked out.

"Yes, it's me. Hello everyone." Martha smiled. "To be honest I actually moved on days ago, but upon learning about your worrying about betraying me I decided to temporarily come back. It's okay dear, I want you to marry Ericka and be happy again. After all, I wouldn't have arranged for you two to meet if I didn't approve." She chuckled.

"What are you talking about, the cruise was Mavis's idea." Griffin pointed out.

"Yeah, thanks to that commercial." Mavis confirmed.

"Well why do you think you couldn't change the channel until after the commercial was over?" Martha winked.

"Well...wait a minute, that's right the channel buttons wouldn't work-" Mavis was stunned. "You did that?"

"Yes, I paid a temporary visit to you and kept the channel buttons from working." Martha smiled. "You see Drac dear, I couldn't move on due to knowing how hurt you were over my death. I wanted you to be happy again, but couldn't figure out how until earlier this year when an angel came down to tell me about Ericka. I was shocked about her being a Van Helsing, but after the angel confirmed that she's your new zing I decided to take a chance. It turns out you can zing more than once, but you can only zing again after a previous one dies."

"Well, that explains why we never knew about zinging more than once before." Wayne shrugged.

"Thank you Martha, I was never truly happy until I fell in love with Dracula." Ericka smiled.

"Of course, I'm just glad things worked out for everyone. Dracula and Mavis especially." Martha smiled back

Mavis suddenly rushed in to hug Martha. Apparently it took her a moment to realize that her mother really was here in the fl- er, ectoplasm. Mavis then started sobbing.

"There there Mavis, I was always with you in your heart." Martha said gently, returning the hug. "But I am glad we can be together now, even if it's for a short while."

Mavis calmed down a bit, wanting to spend that short while talking with her mom instead of crying. She could always cry some more later after her mom leaves.

"Thank you for my 118th birthday present." She smiled.

"Well, I had a feeling that you might want to hear the story of how your father and I met often, so I thought a book version of the story would be a good idea." Martha grinned. "And I knew you would find your zing one day, but I wanted to reassure you of it in case it took you a long time like it took a long time before your father and I finally met. I'm really glad it didn't though, which reminds me." She then turned to Johnny. "Thank you for being good to Dracula and Mavis and improving their lives."

"Aw it was nothing, heck they improved my life as much as I improved theirs so there's no need to thank me." Johnny shrugged humbly with a smile.

"Hi Momma Martha." Dennis smiled.

"Hello Dennis, it's wonderful to meet you in person." Martha smiled.

"Definitely. You did great work, it's a real joy seeing Papa Drac so happy." Dennis smiled.

"Always happy to help out a loved one, even if I have to resort to a little trickery to do it."

"Oh I know all about that." Dennis chuckled; Winnie grinned in agreement.

"Even though sneaking Tinkles to certain locations may harm more than help..." Mavis hinted.

Dennis winced.

"Well, it didn't during the kraken attack." Winnie pointed out, defensively putting an arm around Dennis.

"Why do you think I didn't punish him for sneaking Tinkles onto the cruise?" Mavis smiled.

"Oh yeah..."

"Anyway..." Martha said a little sadly. "I wish I could stay longer, but since I technically already moved on I'm afraid I can't."

She floated over to kiss Dracula on the forehead.

"You go on and enjoy your new life with Ericka now." She smiled.

"I will, and you enjoy heaven for us." Dracula smiled.

"That won't be hard." Martha grinned. "Goodbye everyone, and never forget: I'll always be with all of you in your hearts."

"We won't forget, we promise." Murray smiled.

They all said their goodbyes as Martha dissolved into light and disappeared through the ceiling. They stood there peacefully, enjoying the closure they had just gotten.

"Well..." Dracula smiled gently. "We still have a lot of wedding planning to do."

"More like **I** have a lot of wedding planning to do." Mavis chuckled.

"Except for my wedding dress and bouquet, you better let me plan them out." Ericka smirked.

"Don't worry, I will." Mavis smirked back.

"However you can help us select the first song for us to dance to during the reception. We're having a hard time deciding on one." Dracula said.

"Of course."

With that, they headed home. The rest of the planning went smoothly, for one thing Ericka was able to find the right wedding dress. It was comfortable - which was her main goal - but still relatively fancy. Selecting the right flowers for her bouquet took a little time, since she wanted to go with unique flowers. She finally decided on moonflowers, night-blooming jasmine, and white chrysanthemum.

The wedding night itself, Mavis and the bridesmaids - Wanda, Eunice, etc - helped Martha with the finishing touches.

"How are you feeling?" Wanda asked.

"Well, a little nervous but otherwise I feel great." Ericka smiled. "After all Martha wants me and Drac to marry, and you can't get a better sign than that."

"Very true." Crystal agreed.

"I only wish dad could be here to walk me down the aisle." Ericka then looked sad.

"At least he's in your heart." Mavis said.

"True, mom too. It's not entirely the same though..."

"I know what you mean..." Mavis trailed off, wondering how she could make Ericka feel better.

There was a knock at the door.

"Now who could that be?" Eunice asked.

"I'll check." Mavis went to open the door a crack...and was surprised. "Mr. Van Helsing?"

"Great-grandpa?" Ericka was also surprised. "I thought you weren't comfortable with being at the wedding."

"Excuse me?" Eunice glared.

"Only because he now feels guilty about the past." Ericka explained.

"Oh. That's different."

"Well..." Abraham hesitated. "To be honest, being your only biological relative made me realize that I should be here for you. And I also remembered that your dad isn't here to walk you down the aisle, so since I raised you I thought that...maybe...?"

Ericka hugged him.

"I would love for you to walk me down the aisle." She said.

Abraham returned the hug.

It was now time to walk down the aisle...and Ericka couldn't help noticing with amusement that Abraham's eyes seemed wet.

"Are you crying?" She whispered with a smile.

"No, I accidentally got some oil in my eyes earlier." Abraham whispered back.

Ericka just continued smiling, knowing otherwise.

Sure enough, when she and Dracula exchanged their vows Abraham actually did start sobbing. Ericka technically was his little girl after all. Dracula gave him a sympathetic smile, remembering how he felt when Mavis married Johnny (after he finally left his coffin that is). Ericka smiled too, she hoped that Abraham being able to overcome his awkwardness enough to come to the wedding meant that he would finally start to interact with the other monsters more.

Then of course it was time for the reception, and again Johnny was the DJ. To Abraham's surprise the 'Macarena' didn't play at all during the whole thing.

"I almost considered it since the others enjoyed dancing to it before." Johnny explained later when Abraham asked him about that. "But Dracula told me that it might be inappropriate since the song nearly caused your death."

"Oh." Abraham said, too touched by the thought to say anything else.

Well, except for a 'thank you' to Dracula later on that is.

"You're welcome great-grandpa." Dracula smiled to Abraham's surprise.

And to his further surprise, Abraham realized that he didn't mind Dracula calling him that.

A.N. I did read on Tropes that Abraham and Ericka might've rigged the commercial for their cruise so that you couldn't change the channel while it was playing, but I loved the idea of Martha having prevented Mavis from changing the channel too much to not use it.


End file.
